Friday, May 22, 2015

First, to business. I finally got the Nonplayer store back up and running, and there is new stuff! You can now buy signed copies of Nonplayer #1 (3rd printing), as well as the long-in-coming gigantic poster of the two-page spread from issue 1:

And on the subject of foreign heathens... After much hand-wringing, I've decided that I can't ship things USPS First Class International anymore. That shipping method involves me carrying a bunch of shipping tubes to the post office, filling out individual customs forms for every one of them, and then getting sneered at both by the mail clerk and the fifty people in line behind me for the thirty minutes it takes to process all the packages. Now that I've got a kid, I just don't have an extra hour a day to devote to this. If any kind reader has advice to give on the international shipping conundrum, I am all ears!

For now, I'm just offering Priority International shipping, which is crazy, crazy expensive. So you oil barons and oligarchs can go ahead and pay fifty bucks for shipping if you simply must decorate your yacht with Nonplayer posters. For the rest of you, I apologize for the inconvenience and earnestly hope that there's a home-printed shipping solution waiting out there for me. Again, if any of you have solved this problem, I would love to hear how you did it.

What else?

The third printing of Nonplayer #1 is now on stands, and I'm enjoying getting feedback about the book again after all these years. There's the added benefit that #2 is coming out on June 3, which will create the illusion that this is a monthly comic. Should be lots of fun in July when folks start tweeting at me, wondering where issue 3 went. In case it's not obvious, I do not think this will be fun at all.

The ramp-up to the #2 release was hectic (who knew prepping pages for digital would be so complicated?), but now that all the preparations are complete, there is only the sound of waves breaking against the front of our landing craft as we approach Omaha Beach. It's difficult to get a read on how things will go when that door drops open. I've shown the book to friends, who say that it's good. But they're friends. What are they going to say, "dude, you gave up four years of sleep for nothing. This is total garbage. I no longer wish to be affiliated with you in any way."

I also sent a PDF of the second issue to retailers, who also seem bullish on the book. That's probably a good sign, though I think they too are taking a wait-and-see approach. If folks like the book, I think it'll go fairly quickly to a second printing, which would be wonderful. If you guys like it, I hope you'll share your happy thoughts on Reddit and Twitter and stuff, because the bottleneck on this book has always been awareness. I feel like there are probably people who would like it if they knew it existed, but it's quite difficult to be heard amongst the general promotional din.

Thanks for your support, guys. I am excited to finally be working on #3, and I hope things shake out so that I'm able to get it out sooner than the last one.

Oh, before I forget, here is the current signing schedule for next month:

Comics Dungeon, Seattle: Wednesday, June 3 from 4pm to 6pm
Arcane Comics, Seattle: Friday, June 5 from 6pm to 8pm
Destiny City Comics, Tacoma: Sunday, June 7 from 2pm to 4pm
Third Eye Comics, Annapolis: Saturday, June 13 from 11am to 1pm
HeroesCon, Charlotte: Friday, June 19 - Sunday, June 21